


Powdered Doughnut Fingerprints

by cinip



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Humor, Mistakes, Never Have I Ever, Oneshot, POV Ben, Pre-Canon, Sibling Bonding, Sneaking Out, they're 12 in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 00:35:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18354965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinip/pseuds/cinip
Summary: Ben wants to do something normal for a change, so he, Klaus, and Five sneak out one night to go get doughnuts.





	Powdered Doughnut Fingerprints

Ben looked up at the ceiling above him and traced his eyes against the fragile moonbeam that had made its way into his room. He folded his hands over his chest and felt a sickening feeling wash over him. Their father had always told them that they were “special” and “meant to stop the world from the apocalypse”- their training had certainly proved that. But sometimes,  _ sometimes _ , he wished that this wasn’t the case. That he  _ couldn’t, _ no,  _ didn’t have to _ summon creatures from under his skin. Sure, his power was quite useful in situations, but it wasn’t the most sightly appearance, not to mention how it  _ felt _ . 

He sighed and rolled over to his side, looking at his closed door. Technically, there was nothing stopping him from leaving right then, going out and exploring the house, but what good would that do? Ben sat straight up. He wanted to go outside. To  _ do _ something. What did other kids their age do? Ben thought for a moment for something,  _ anything _ , that he wanted to do, within reason of course. He settled on getting something sugary, like a smoothie, or doughnut. 

He stole a quick glance at the clock. It was just approaching eleven, so most places should still be open. He looked down at his sleepwear, then over at the rest of his clothes. He didn’t really want to wear his uniform, but it would be really obvious that he was sneaking out if he wore his sleepwear. Ben settled on keeping the pants of his uniform and staying in the white t-shirt he had been going to sleep in. 

As soon as he entered the hallway, he suddenly felt unsure about going out alone at night. He hadn’t exactly done it before. What if he ran into trouble? There were a lot of things that could go wrong. He nervously glanced over towards Klaus’s door. He rested his hand against the back of it. Klaus had snuck out before, Ben was almost sure of it. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if Klaus was with him too? He’d certainly feel a lot safer. Ben made up his mind to take Klaus along, and softly knocked on his door. 

No response. 

Hesitant, Ben decided to slowly open the door and wake Klaus. Now  _ this _ was something Klaus  _ would _ mind, but Ben chose to take his chances anyways. Once the door was opened enough for him to get in, Ben slipped through, and peered around his room. Klaus had written a bunch of stuff on the walls that Ben had never bothered to read, but he could barely make it out in the darkness of the room. He reached over for the lightswitch. As soon as the lights turned on, he screamed. 

Not because Klaus’s bed was empty, but because he was suddenly grabbed from behind, one arm across his abdomen, and one hand covering his mouth. Suddenly, he was released. Ben spun around and immediately wiped off his mouth on his sleeve. 

“Klaus! That was gross!” he complained as Klaus pushed past him and fell back onto his own bed. Klaus shrugged.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought getting someone else’s spit on my hand would be pleasant,” he said sarcastically as he wiped his hand off with a tissue. “I thought you’d be more grateful that I kept you from waking Dad or Pogo up.” Ben crossed his arms. 

“Yeah, well, you don’t have to be an ass about it,” he said softly, watching Klaus stretch his arms. He did kind of have a point, seeing a Klaus-less bed and then a subsequent Klaus in the hallway illuminated by the soft light of the room would have  _ probably  _ caused him to scream either way. “So, uh, I was wondering, do you want to sneak out?”

“And do what?” asked Klaus, seemingly already down with the idea. Ben uncrossed his arms and let them dangle by his sides. 

“Wait, seriously? Cool, okay, uh, I wanted to go get a doughnut or something,” said Ben. Klaus raised an eyebrow. Shoot, this wasn’t going to work. If Klaus wanted to go out, it would probably have to be something a lot more risky, and suddenly, Ben didn’t feel comfortable with the situation. “I mean, I  _ just _ want a doughnut-”

“Well I know just the place,” said Klaus, lifting the back of his mattress up to pull out a bunch of clothes that Ben could only assume he had “borrowed” from their mother. Klaus held up two skirts, a brown one and a plaid one. “Brown or plaid?”

“I suddenly don’t want to go,” teased Ben. Klaus rolled his eyes and settled on the brown one. 

“I’d rather wear  _ this _ than  _ that _ ,” said Klaus, pointing at Ben’s knee high socks. “And besides, now that you’ve got me changing, I’m leaving either way.” Ben accepted defeat, and turned around as Klaus changed into another one of his “outfits”. 

“I’ve got a jacket,” said Klaus, tossing Ben a light black zip up that he’d never seen before. It looked like it could have belonged to someone a bit smaller than Klaus. Had he bought this with his own money? Stolen it? Ben shrugged and slipped it on. It fit well enough. 

“Alright, let’s aim to be back before 1,” said Klaus. Ben nodded. He didn’t think that getting doughnut would take two hours, but then again, he’d never tried sneaking out before. Klaus reached under the other half of his matress and pulled out an assorted amount of coins and bills before attempting to find a pocket in the skirt, failing, then handing them to Ben. Ben put them in his pockets. 

“Make sure you pay me back later, or else,” said Klaus. 

“Or else  _ what _ ?”

“Oh, you know.”

Ben rolled his eyes. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to pay Klaus back, it was the needless “or else” he added to the end that bothered him. But he let it go. There were bigger obstacles they needed to overcome. Mostly, the fact that once they got up the stairs, they encountered someone neither of them had expected to see. 

“Shh,” said Klaus as he pulled Ben’s arm back. Ben hunched over towards the wall, but it was too late, they had been seen. He watched the shadows move around until the perpetrator was visible, hands on his hips, and chin tilted slightly upwards. “Oh crap, he’s seen us.”

“Duh,” retorted Ben. 

“What’s this? Sneaking out at night? Something we’re absolutely forbidden to do? You know, I could alert Mom, or Pogo…” 

Five had chosen not to take a name. Ben didn’t really understand why he wanted to be called Five instead of something else, to which Five would reply that “Five” was simply his name, since that’s what he grew accustomed to being called. Of course, this didn’t make much sense, but he wasn’t going to argue about it. 

“Ben’s idea,” said Klaus, pushing Ben up the stairs a little bit. Ben turned around and glared at his one brother before turning around to make frightened eye contact with his other one. 

“Please don’t-”

“Fortunately, I’m not going to tell on you guys,” said Five. Both Klaus and Ben breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m not Luther.” The other two giggled a little before realizing that there was still a chance that since the three of them were awake, the other four could be as well, especially with all the ruckus they’d caused. 

“Oh, thank goodness, I thought we were going to have to dispose of a body-”

“You wouldn’t have the guts, Klaus,” said Five through some gritted teeth. Klaus flinched backwards. “Anyways, I’m not telling, on  _ one condition _ .”

“Being…?” asked Ben. He hoped it wasn’t something terrible. He didn’t want to get stuck ironing Five’s uniforms or anything. He already didn’t know how to iron, and being  _ forced _ to learn sounded like it’d suck. 

“I go with you, of course. You’re sneaking out, right?” said Five, pointing at their clothes. “I mean, I know Klaus likes to dress like a dumbass normally, but you’re in shoes.” Ben opened his mouth to talk, and then looked down to notice Klaus was barefoot. 

“If anyone’s dressed like a dumbass, it’s….” Klaus stopped his sentence after getting glared at by Five again. “Anyways, we’re going to Griddy’s, I only brought enough money for me and Ben, so you’ve got to fund yourself-oh, that’s enough.” Klaus was satisfied once Five whipped a twenty out of his pocket. 

“Front door’s already unlocked, I was planning on going for a walk and I heard you two idiots giving each other wet willies or something,” said Five, opening the door for them. 

“He licked my hand!” scoffed Klaus. Ben gasped. 

“You put your hand over my mouth. I had every reason to be alerted!” said Ben a bit louder than he probably should have. 

“And this is how I found you two,” grumbled Five as he closed the door behind them. The air was crisp and a bit cold, but thanks to the jacket he got from Klaus, Ben wasn’t too cold. A few leaves blew past them. 

“Do you know the way?” asked Ben. 

“No, I was just going to aimlessly wander around until we got there,” said Klaus with enough deadpan that Ben could almost believe that he was being serious. Almost.

The three of them traversed towards Griddy’s Doughnuts. There weren’t too many people on the streets this late at night. There were occasional cars that went past, but the streets were lit by street lights so they weren’t in complete darkness. 

“You know, you’ve each walked through about four ghosts each,” said Klaus, using both his brothers as armrests. “Rather disrespectful, if I do say so myself. Kind of icky too.”

“Well I’m not moving out of the way, so you better tell  _ them _ to move,” said Five. Klaus smirked. Ben shuddered at the thought of walking right through dead people. Klaus was blessed, no,  _ cursed _ , with the ability to see and talk with the dead. It was a lot of stress to deal with it, it was no  _ wonder _ he was a bit quirky. Weren’t they all, though?

“Five,” said Klaus, before a stupid grin appeared on his face. Five looked at him, confused. “No, Five, you walked through your fifth one.” Klaus laughed like this was the funniest thing to him. Ben and Five exchanged an annoyed glance. 

It didn’t take long for them to finally get to Griddy’s, and by the time they got there, they were most certainly cold now. The three of them climbed up onto the stools at the front of the diner and peered over towards where the doughnuts were behind a shiny glass casing. 

“There are so many options,” said Ben, his eyes completely glued to the selections of doughnuts before him. Their dad had never let them go out and get sweets like this, it would contradict with their training. But before him, there were colors of food that he had never even knew were possible. 

“Ben, you still have the money, right?” asked Klaus. Ben reached into his pocket and almost had a heart attack before he realized that he had just put the money into his other pocket. He pulled some of it out. “Oh good. What are you thinking about getting?” 

“Maybe a powdered one,” he said just as a waitress approached. Her name tag read Agnes. She looked rather nice. 

“Oh, well this is unusual,” she said, giving the three of them a look over. Ben felt himself stiffen up. This was it. Their plan was going to be blown. She could  _ obviously  _ tell that they had snuck out and was probably one move away from calling their parents. They were doomed. 

“Yeah, not many people want to celebrate their birthdays at a doughnut place, but when my  _ buddy _ here invited us, we decided to come anyways,” said Klaus with a voice that he only ever used when talking to people of authority. 

“He really likes the, uh, powdered ones,” said Five, trying to remember what Ben had said before. Ben nodded a little too enthusiastically. Agnes softened her gaze at him. Wait, was their mismatched plan actually working?

“That’s adorable, you know what, I’ll throw in a doughnut on the house for the birthday boy,” said Agnes. “How old are you turning?”

“Thirteen,” panicked Ben. Five and Klaus glared at him. Not more than a few weeks ago had they all just turned twelve. He silently wished that the two of them would just drop it and not try to bring up that they were  _ also _ “thirteen”. Thankfully, his wish came true. 

“And what can i get you two?” asked Agnes. 

“I’ll take a chocolate one with sprinkles,” said Klaus in his ‘good boy’ voice. It unsettled both Ben and Five to see him this chipper. 

“I’ll have a glazed, and can I get a cup of coffee too? Black,” said Five. Agnes looked at him weird, but so did Klaus and Ben. “What, I’m putting it on my own tab.” Whether or not Five actually assumed that’s why Agnes looked at him weird was totally unknown to Ben. Fortunately for them, Agnes seemed not to mind too much, and shortly returned with their goods. 

“Thanks!” said Klaus in a way that caused ben and Five to cringe. “It’s getting late, we better take these to go. It was nice talking to you!”

“You boys take care,” said Agnes waving them off. Ben sighed with relief as soon as they got out of the shop. 

“Why’d we have to leave so early? You know I hate these to-go cups,” grumbled Five. Ben guessed that he just burned his lips trying to drink out of the lid.

“For starters, it’s easier to not get picked up by curfew when you’re the only one walking around, and two, she was  _ definitely  _ on to something. I mean, Ben was practically sweating bullets,” said Klaus. Ben opened his mouth to argue but then quickly closed it. He took a bite of his powdered doughnut. It tasted just as good as he hoped it would, from the sweetness of the sugar to the fluffiness of the bread. 

“I think you were just being paranoid,” said Five, seemingly burning himself on his coffee. 

“Why are you getting coffee in the middle of the night anyways?” asked Ben. Five didn’t even humor him with a response. The three of them walked in silence a little bit before Klaus held up a hand and wiggled all five of his fingers.

“Never have I ever worn parts of our uniform when I’ve snuck out,” he said with a smirk on his face. Five and Ben subsequently held a hand up and put their finger down. 

“That’s not fair, we’re literally wearing our uniforms right now,” grumbled Ben. Klaus shrugged. 

“It’s okay, he’s going to be down another two by the time we get back to his turn,” said Five, thinking for a moment. “Never have I ever worn a skirt.”

“Lies, remember two years ago when-”

“I was going undercover, doesn’t count,” interjected Five, but he put one of his fingers down anyways. “At least I didn’t say ‘never have I ever seen dead people’.”

“Never have I ever, uh, kissed a girl,” said Ben. Klaus and Five put down a finger. 

“Allison and Vanya don’t count,” jeered Klaus. Five made a gross face. 

“Ew, I’m not  _ Luther _ ,” he said before taking another sip of his coffee. Ben giggled a little bit. While they did like to make fun of the Number One of the team, it was mostly because he took so much pride in being named “Number One”. It’s not like the ranking was  _ that _ important anyways, but to him, he took it a bit too far. The only one he seemingly had a soft spot for was Allison. 

“Then who?” asked Ben, who was actually curious. 

“I’ll bet she’s not even real,” joked Klaus, to which Five blushed at. 

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said cryptically. His brothers shrugged and continued on with the game. 

“Wow, you actually have less points than I do,” said Klaus, wiggling his three fingers and looking down at Five’s two. Ben still had four fingers up, but he knew that Klaus would be coming for him next. “Never have I ever seen Dad without his monocle.” No response. 

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen him without the monocle either,” said Five, stroking his chin.

“Do you think it’s glued to his face?” joked Ben, holding up part of his doughnut to his face. “Maybe it gives him x-ray vision.”

“It tells him whenever we’re approaching so he knows not to be seen with a smile on his face.”

“Of course.”

“Do you think I’d look good in a monocle?” asked Klaus. 

“I don’t think you’d look good in anything,” replied Five. Klaus rolled his eyes at him. 

“A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed,” he said back before finishing his doughnut. 

“Never have I ever had Pogo randomly search my room for things that shouldn’t be in there,” said Five. 

“Wow, it’s almost like I’m being targeted,” said Klaus as he put down his finger to match Five’s two. Five took a sip of his coffee.

“Aw man, my coffee’s cold.”

“Never have I ever had coffee,” said Ben. Five and Klaus groaned and each put a finger down. 

“I was trying to get Five back for getting you out, Klaus,” said Ben. 

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” was the sarcastic reply he received. Klaus turned to Five with a mischievous look. 

“Never have I ever made Mom sing me a bedtime song.”

Five balled his fist up and stuck it into his pocket, speechless. 

“Good game, I guess,” he said, defeated. Klaus smirked at him. 

“You do realize that I still have four fingers up,” said Ben. Klaus’s smirk went away. “And all I have to do is say something outlandish, like ‘never have I ever tried to drive a car’ and you’ve probably done it at some point.” Klaus put his finger down. 

“Seriously? When,” asked Five. “Because I doubt that.”

“Remember that time when I was supposed to be keeping watch-”

“Oh right, the convenience store incident, the one where magically one of the robbers got hit by a car. I remember now,” said Five, filling in the blanks. “I just thought Allison rumored one of them or something. Good to know, good to know.”

“And I guess I’m out,” said Klaus. Ben felt a wisp of pride make its way to him as he had won the little game. Who knew  _ not _ doing stuff could make him a winner? As the three of them approached the front door, they noticed something wrong. Specifically, that it was locked, and had not been locked when they left. 

“Okay so bad news,” said Klaus, after attempting to open the door even though Five had just tried. “Either Pogo knows we’re out and purposefully locked the door, or this was a routine check and the door is locked now.” 

“Did you think I hadn’t pulled hard enough,” said Five, a bit annoyed. He cracked his knuckles. “Alright, I’ll just zip in and unlock the door for you two. Just stay here.” And with that, Five used his power to go inside the house. Ben and Klaus waited for a few seconds. Those seconds turned into minutes. Ben started shivering a little bit. The warmth from the doughnut was now faded, and Five had left them outside for quite some time now. 

“That little jerk probably left us out here on purpose,” said Klaus. “I should have seen it coming! He could get himself in just fine, he’s probably already asleep in his bed.”

“What do we do now?” asked Ben. “I’m freezing. Could we go in through a window or something?” Klaus’s eyes perked up. 

“Yes, of course, quick, let’s find one,” he said as the two of them scoured around for any open window. Ben eventually found one that led to the living room, based off the proximity of where it was on the outside of the house and how the ugly drapes looked. 

“Klaus, I found a window,” called over Ben. Klaus walked over quickly, and Ben was once again reminded that he was barefoot. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Yeah.”

Well, that was enough of an answer for Ben. The two of them looked at the window for a second before Klaus brushed some of the drapes away. Ben pushed the top of the window up a little bit to make a bigger gap to crawl through. Klaus hoisted himself up so his waist was level with the bottom of the panel. 

“I’ll just go in first and unlock the door, I’ve done this before,” said Klaus. “Look away, I’m wearing a skirt.” Ben begrudgingly turned around. 

“Please don’t leave me out here like Five did,” he whined. Klaus gave him a little pat on the back. 

“I  _ promise _ I’ll get the door open,” said Klaus, but Ben wasn’t so sure of that. He peered inside as Klaus started to walk towards the door. But then he lost track of him. Ben walked over to the front of the house and waited. The door didn’t open. He sighed. Klaus had tricked him. Of course he had. He’d have to go in through the window too. 

Ben walked over to the window and tried to hoist himself up. He wasn’t as tall and lanky as Klaus was, so this was a bit more challenging for him. So much so, that he ended up throwing himself over the panel into the room, taking the drapes down with him. 

“Oh no,” was all he could say as the drapes were ripped from the ceiling down onto the ground with him. He quickly scrambled to get out of the drapes. Suddenly, he looked a little to the left and realized he had missed a knife hurtling straight towards him that hit right next to where his head had been. He looked around in the dark, before seeing a shadowy figure. Suddenly, the figure turned the lights on, revealing himself to be another brother, Diego, with Klaus tied very poorly to one of the support beams. 

“Jeeze, Ben, I thought the house was getting attacked,” said Diego, wiping his forehead off a little bit. “First with the door being unlocked, and then Five randomly coming in here, seeing me, and then teleporting away to who knows where.” He used his knife to cut the ropes away from Klaus. 

“And it didn’t help that the two of you came in through the window.”

“Five was supposed to let us in,” said Klaus. “Obviously, when he didn’t, we thought he had bailed. But now we know it was _ your _ fault.”

“I thought we were being invaded!”

“Guys?”

“Well sorry for getting into the house the only way I could, I guess I should have just called you and asked for your permission first.”

“Maybe  _ don’t _ go sneaking around in the middle of the night and expect me  _ not _ to be suspicious when things don’t add up?”

“Guys I tore the drapes!” 

And with that, Ben finally got their attention. Five just teleported back in time to look at the mess Ben had created. 

“What do I do?” asked Ben, looking at the part where they were supposed to be hanging from. “There’s no way I can put these back on.”

“That sounds like a  _ you _ problem,” said Klaus, starting to walk back to his room. Diego grabbed his arm and yanked him back. “Okay  _ maybe _ an ‘us’ problem.”

“No, look at this,” said Five, bending over to examine the drapes. “They’ve obviously got Ben’s powdered doughnut fingerprints on them. All Dad has to do is get Mom to ask us if we’ve had doughnuts recently. Ben’s not a good enough liar to ward her off. He’s doomed.” Ben groaned and rubbed his eyes. They had almost successfully snuck out, almost. Of course something had to go very wrong at the end. 

“Here, let’s clean them off,” said Diego, running to get a napkin and some water. 

“How about we remove all the drapes? I think Dad’s so engrossed in his work that he wouldn’t notice if  _ all _ the drapes went missing,” offered Klaus.

“I might be able to buy you some time if we start getting interrogated,” said Five. Ben held back tears and looked at his brothers, who were all trying to help him get out of a mess that while wasn’t completely his fault, was mostly his fault. 

“Thanks, guys, I really appreciate it,” he said. Five offered him a rare smile. 

“I never liked those drapes, anyways,” said Five, looking at the heap of drapes on the floor. Diego handed Ben a wet rag and helped him remove all the areas he had gotten powder on. 

“We should probably get to bed, Dad’s going to want us up really early tomorrow morning,” said Diego. The others agreed, and started heading over towards their rooms. Ben hesitated a little bit, and hung back by the stairs, looking off towards where the drapes were. He felt really bad for destroying something so expensive seeming, and wished that he had just waited until Diego figured out what was going on. It wasn’t technically his brother's faults for leaving him out there. He should have just been a bit more careful.

Suddenly, he slunk back into the shadows as he saw a figure approaching the drapes. He peered around the corner, and noticed that his mom was standing there, looking at the drapes. He gasped when she bent down and picked them up, and started to sew one of the corners to patch up a part that he had torn. He waited and watched for almost half an hour as she mended the drapes for him. Perhaps this wasn’t going to be as big of a deal as he thought it would. 

Ben raced back to his room quietly and shut the door. He changed back into his pajamas, and looked up at the ceiling again. Going out at night was really fun. He’d like to do this again sometime. Just, next time, he’d have to be a bit more careful. And maybe, he’d get the others to go with him, too. 

**Author's Note:**

> I based this a little bit off the time when my brother and I locked ourselves out in the middle of the night and I was supposed to go in through the window to let us in. Of course, he tore the drapes down, and we actually got in trouble, but it would have been fun if we hadn't x)
> 
> please kudos and comment if you enjoyed ^3^


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